You Never Think It Can Happen
by Roth
Summary: Gabe is haunted by memories he thought he had put away. R&R only if you want


Title: You Never Think It Can Happen

  
  


Author: nancy89 slaton@gallatinriver.net

  
  


Rating: PG 13

  
  


Spoilers: None

  
  


Disclaimer: I don't own adventure inc, or the characters. I am not making any money off this story and please I am definitely not in the mood to be sued. 

  
  


Note: I wrote this story as a memorial after a killed kid themselves at my school (it did not happen in my school) I only chose Gabe to tell the tale because he is the youngest. Please be aware the teen suicide is a very real thing we found out too late.

  
  


Summary: Gabe is haunted by memories he thought he had put away. Graphic R&R (only if you want).

  
  
  
  


You Never Think It Can Happen

The dream had been coming more and more often. It was always the same. He walking down the hallway, the locker had the poster on the door. So many people had signed it, but so few had actually known him.

The scene changed. He was standing in front of the kid. Kyle Wilson was lying limp on the floor of his room. Blood was coming from a bullet hole in his head.

Gabe sprang up in his bed breathing heavily as he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. He looked at his watch. "Three a.m.," he said quietly to himself.

He got out of his bed and walked into the ships kitchen. Gabe got himself a glass of water and collapsed into a chair. This time the dream had been more vivid then last.

"You in here, Gabe?" came Judson's voice from the hall.

"Yeah," replied Gabe hoarsely. "I was just getting something to drink." He drained the glass of water and set it down. Why were the dreams coming back? It had happened when he was fourteen. He thought he had gotten over it. 

Gabe left the glass on the table and went back to bed.

  
  


******

  
  


"Have you noticed that Gabe hasn't been himself lately?" asked Mac the next morning when she and Judson were eating breakfast.

"Yeah," replied Judson. "He has been unusually quiet the past week and I don't think he has been getting much sleep either."

"Why?" asked Mac. She had noticed it too, but didn't want to say anything.

"I woke up last night and he was in the kitchen," answered Judson.

"Maybe we should ask him what's wrong," suggested Mac.

"He'll tell us when he's ready," said Judson, "but if it get's worse, we'll ask."

Gabe walked into the room and Mac and Judson quickly ceased the conversation. Gabe's eyes were bloodshot and he tried to hide a yawn from his friends.

"Morning, Gabe," said Judson calmly as he watched his young friend sit down in a chair.

"Morning," replied Gabe quietly. He tried to hide another yawn from his friends, but failed.

Mac couldn't take it anymore. "What's wrong?" she nearly shouted at Gabe.

Startled, both Gabe and Judson looked over at her.

"That wasn't really the approach I wanted to take to it," said Judson, "but I guess it's too late now. What is wrong Gabe?"

Gabe looked over at his two friends. It was hard to lie to them. "Nothing," said Gabe quietly. He hung his head down trying to hide from their eyes.

"Are you sure?" asked Judson putting a hand on Gabe's shoulder.

"I'm fine," said Gabe as he got out of his chair and walked out of the room.

"That's definitely a lie," said Mac.

"I know," said Judson, "but he's not going to tell us."

******

  
  


Gabe typed on his computer trying to keep his mind from wandering back to the dream. It kept replaying in his mind. It wasn't fair. Kyle may not have been a popular kid, but he didn't deserve to die.

"Why did he want me to find him?" Gabe asked himself. "I was his friend." He felt the tears start to slide down his face.

Mac stood in the doorway. She couldn't stand it anymore. Mac walked into the room and sat down next to Gabe. She was shocked to see the tears sliding down his face.

"What's the matter, Gabe?" asked Mac quietly.

He opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out. Instead, he cried harder.

Mac put her arms around Gabe's shoulder and said, "It's okay, Gabe. It's okay."

Gabe wanted to believe his friend, but he wanted the guilt to stop even more.

"No it won't," said Gabe quietly. "They said it would be okay a long time ago, but it was never okay." He continued to cry.

Mac helped Gabe stand up and they walked into the kitchen.

"I'll get you something to drink," said Mac as she sat him down in a chair. Gabe just continued to cry. Mac got Gabe a glass of water and then went to find Judson.

Gabe sat there holding the glass in his hand. "I'm so sorry, Kyle," said Gabe. He could feel his hands shaking as the glass fell to the floor.

Mac and Judson ran into the kitchen when they heard the glass break. They saw Gabe sitting on the floor with his legs pull up against his chest and his head resting on his knees. The shattered glass was all over the floor.

"It's all my fault," said Gabe through his tears. "I should have known something was wrong. I was his friend or at least I was supposed to be."

"What are you talking about, Gabe?" asked Judson as he knelt down to look his friend in the eyes.

Gabe turned his tear-stained face toward Judson and said in a voice barely above a whisper, "My friend Kyle Wilson killed himself and I was the one who found him."

Mac stared down at her friend. She felt so bad. She should have never have pushed him.

"Gabe," she said softly as she kneeled down next to her friend, "I'm sorry."

He looked at her and tried to say something, but could only cry. Mac wrapped her arms around Gabe and gently rocked him back and forth.

"It wasn't your fault, Gabe," said Judson.

"Yes it is," cried Gabe. "I was his friend. I should have known something was wrong." Gabe cried harder and curled up into a ball.

Mac let Gabe cry while she and Judson sat there. So this was what Gabe had been keeping to himself.

Gabe's crying slowly ceased and they saw that he had fallen asleep.

Both Judson and Mac half dragged half carried Gabe to his room so he could sleep in his bed. The tear streaks stood out on his pale face. They turned out the lights in Gabe's room and went back to the kitchen.

"He found his friend after he committed suicide," said Mac after she had collapsed into a chair. "I should never have pushed him to tell us."

"You did the right thing, Mac," said Judson. "This was obviously eating him up inside." He got Mac and himself a cup of coffee and sat down at the table.

"I know," said Mac. Then she thought to herself as she took a drink of coffee. "Why now?"

  
  
  
  


******

  
  


The dream came again. Gabe was trapped in the repeating nightmare as he once again found himself standing in front of his dead friend.

"It's not real," said Gabe as he slid down the opposite wall. "It's not real." The dream became more vivid after Gabe's cries. The scene in front of him drilled itself into his mind.

"Gabe!" he heard someone shout. "Gabe wake up!" he could feel someone shaking him.

"It's not real," said Gabe trying to wake himself up. "It's not real."

Gabe opened his eyes and saw the concerned faces of mac and Judson staring at him.

"Come on," said Judson helping Gabe sit up. "You're going to tell us what happened."

Gabe looked at his two friends and saw that they weren't going to back down. Gabe took a deep breath and started to tell the tale.

"My friend, Kyle Wilson, wasn't popular. He was picked on a lot and he didn't get too many good grades. To be perfectly honest, I only became his friend because we were science partners. He was funny, but he didn't really talked much." The tears were coming along with the story.

"About two months after we became friends," Gabe continued, "he started to become more and more withdrawn. I found a note in my locker one. It said to come over to his house after school. When I got there, it seemed like no one was home. I knocked on the front door and it was open.

"I walked up to his room and called Kyle's name. I didn't get a response, so I walked inside and saw Kyle lying on the floor. The was the last thing I remembered before I woke up in the hospital. They said I ran out of the room and when I was running downstairs, I tripped and fell."

After Gabe had finished the story, he leaned his head against the wall. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted. He hadn't noticed, but the crying had stopped.

"I never told anyone the whole story before," said Gabe quietly.

"I hope it helped," said Mac as she placed a hand on his shoulder. "Remember, you can tell us anything."

"Tomorrow," said Gabe, "it will have been nine years since it happened."

"That's why you started having those dreams," said Judson

Gabe nodded tiredly. All the nights of lost sleep were starting to catch up with him.

"All I can really tell," said Judson, "is that it wasn't your fault." He stared at his young friend and saw that he had fallen asleep.

"Do you think he'll be okay?" asked Mac as she and Judson left the room.

"I hope so," was Judson's simple and quiet answer, "but the truth is no one ever thinks these things can happen until they do. As you can see they take a large toll on people." They turned the lights out in the room and left Gabe to sleep hoping the nightmares would be gone.

  
  


The End

  
  


*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  


I wrote this as a memorial to one of the students at my school. We're sorry that we didn't give you a fair chance and that we'll miss you. People need to know that these things happen and that it's takes large tolls on people. 


End file.
